A Christmas celebration of behaviour change!

To mark the 9th day of Christmas, I have had a think about 9 behaviour change campaigns I have been a victim of, my colleagues have been a victim of or ones we have simply admired from afar. They range from the local to the national, from the ancient to the brand new and from mouthwash to a cartoon animal.

When whittling down the competitors, I started to get a little over excited about the campaigns I had seen on TV or whilst waiting for a tube which I’d been in awe at over the ‘cleverness’ or ‘creativity’ of the campaign. A trap too many of us fall in when thinking about great social marketing or behaviour change campaigns – the package is not everything! How many people can think of behaviour change campaigns they’ve been impressed with on TV through clever advertising – but has it actually changed your behaviour? That’s one to think about

Finally, after far too long, we have a national behaviour change campaign to combat mental health discrimination and stigma. Whilst still in the early stages of a lengthy campaign, they’re beginning to get results which evidence the positive impact of the campaign on people’s behaviour towards people suffering from mental health problems.

An oldy but a goody. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents featured the squirrel and his friends to introduce clear and simple safety messages for children. Tufty was a better message carrier than adults and the Tufty Club was set up as a nationwide network of local groups. At its peak there were 24,500 registered Tufty Clubs. They got a lot of things right before social marketing was a twinkle in anyone’s eye.

A national campaign to to raise awareness of the symptoms of bladder and kidney cancers and encourage early presentation to their GP. Absolutely genius social marketing that could not have been more directly aimed at its target audience – quite literally sending the message through the urinals. You need to see it to believe it.

NextJump’s CEO Charlie Kim wanted his employees to exercise regularly. And so, NextJump (an internet and ecommerce company) installed gyms in their offices and created a custom application that rewarded employees for “checking in” to the gyms. With this campaign, around 12% of the company’s staff began a regular workout schedule.However, the CEO wasn’t satisfied and so NextJump included gamification into their program. Now their employees could form regionally based teams, check in to workouts, and chart their team’s progress on a leader-board. This had a powerful effect on creating and sustaining a positive behavioral change. With gamification, 70% of NextJump’s employees now regularly work out. A great example of the power of a nudge in creating long lasting behaviour change.

We all know it and we all love it. A campaign that is not only instantly recognisable but one that had clear impact on the ground, not only influencing the behaviour of dog-buyers (customers) but also dog sellers (stakeholders) – it has now become the norm for dog breeders and kennels to prohibit the selling of dogs over the Christmas period. A clear message and a clear result. Bravo.

Following the successful implementation of trying to normalise HIV testing throughout HIV week by making it an accessible offer in social settings such as bars and clubs. This normalisation of HIV testing has been given a huge endorsement by way of the Public Health Minister. Expect more to come.

A campaign to tackle the confusion round the law on sexual assault and harassment, confusion particularly on consent and confusion about what is acceptable behaviour. It aimed to increase the reporting of sexual assault or rape and early reports are indicating that this increase has been realised since the launch of the campaign.

Yes I’ve done it, I’ve included it, but Ive used its real name! Groundbreaking cycle campaign to encourage that straddles a number of behaviour change areas including leading a healthy lifestyle, green living and sustainable travel. A huge cost but a huge return already in the unprecedented uptake of the scheme marked by the announcements of the extension of the scheme across other parts of London.